In a Heartbeat

BLOODSHOT is an intense, would-be psychological thriller along the lines of the FATAL ATTRACTIONs of old. It's a low budget British romp, set and filmed in London, and it features a maverick special effects technician (played in his customary style by Danny Dyer) who rescues a confused young woman on the street and takes her back to his place. She ends up living with him, and a blossoming romance develops between the pair...

Much of BLOODSHOT consists of scenes which go nowhere only to develop the slowest-moving narrative either. There are lots of horror elements in the script, from Dyer's ultra-gory work as a SFX guy to some absolutely ludicrous nightmare sequences that look like they belong in a cheap Jess Franco movie, but in terms of actual plotting and incident little happens. The scriptwriter is content to keep you guessing, building up to what I hoped would be a huge pay-off at the climax.

Except that pay-off never happens; the story just fizzles away, leaving this a film as a whole where nothing happens. It's almost entirely without merit; the technical values are reasonable, but the acting is pretty diabolical. Dyer is his usual self but it's Zoe Grisedale who comes off the worst, looking completely out of her depth in such a demanding role. A couple of British film regulars appear here and there (Craig Conway and Keith Allen) but they add little to what is in essence a non-starter of a film.